


Mercedes Dies of Cholera

by t_stonehill



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Cholera, F/F, I don't go into that much graphic detail though, cholera is kind of a gross disease so... be warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 12:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20778755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_stonehill/pseuds/t_stonehill
Summary: Earlier today a friend of mine tweeted "Has anybody written historically accurate "mercedes is dying of cholera" mercedes/annette fic or do i have to do everything around here myself" so.... I did it for her.Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin.





	Mercedes Dies of Cholera

“Why do you have to do this?” asks Annette, watching Mercedes haphazardly pack her bags. “Why do you have to go this far? If they wanted help, they’d come to the monastery themselves, or to one of the other churches.”

“They don’t trust the church anymore,” says Mercedes, with that infuriatingly calm smile of hers, continuing to pack. “There’s never been an outbreak like this in Fodlan before. The first people who get sick, they hurry to the church to be taken care of by healers, but then people start to die. And so everyone starts to assume that the church is killing them themselves, and they stop going to healers. But they don’t stop dying.” Mercedes stops moving for a moment, looking Annette in the eye, and raising one hand to caress her cheek. Annette flinches at the touch. “Oh, Annie, you know I love you. And I would love to stay here and have fun with you forever. But there are people out there dying, alone and afraid and uncared for. I have to do something for them.”

“I know being a healer is important to you,” says Annette, knocking Mercedes’ hand away. “I know helping people is important to you.” Annette squeezes her hands in fists by her sides, trying to hold back tears. “But I thought I was important to you, too.”

Mercedes’ pats Annette on the head, still smiling. “Of course you’re important to me, Annie.”

“But you’re still planning on leaving.”

“I’m still planning on leaving, yes.”

“Stay, please!” Annette grabs the sleeve of Mercedes’ dress. “We survived a war together! And now you’re going to rush off to die of some disease?”

“I’m going to help people with this disease for the same reasons I went to war,” says Mercedes’. “And there’s always a risk of death, whatever you do. You could always come with me, you know. You have some healing powers yourself.”

“No way!” says Annette. “I’m not stupid!”

Mercedes, now fully packed, hefts her bag over her shoulder. Then she leans down and gently kisses Annette on the lips. “In that case, I’ll see you when I return.”

“Don’t bother!” says Annette.

It wasn’t the first time they’d gotten in an argument like this, but it was the first time they’d been separated for so long in the middle of one. By the time Annette had calmed down, Mercedes wasn’t there for her to apologize to. And who knew if Mercedes would ever return again? Even if she didn’t die of the disease, the last thing Annette had said to her was not to return.

Annette spends the first few days after Mercedes leaves starting wistfully out of the window during the day, and crying at night. Then she begins spending time in Mercedes’ old room, reading her papers, trying to get closer to her.

Annette is sick of people who are important to her leaving, and her not being able to go after them. But even if she wanted to chase after Mercedes, she wouldn’t know where to go.

That’s when she notices it.

Mercedes has pages and pages of notes about the disease, which she’s called “cholera,” with details about where and who has contracted it, all marked on a map, with a particular village circled.

Annette packs her bags the next morning.

The village looks surprisingly peaceful for a town ravaged by disease, although Annette admittedly doesn’t have much experience with disease-ravaged towns and therefore wouldn’t know what they’re supposed to look like.

Annette wanders through the village in a daze, searching the faces of all the passersby to see if she can spot Mercedes. Eventually she finds her way to the village square, and notices that the stone well in the center of the square has been boarded up. Curious, she asks a passing boy about it.

“The well’s unclean, miss,” says the boy. “No one’s allowed to drink out of it anymore.”

“Unclean?” asks Annette. “What does that mean?”

The boy shrugs. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask the healer lady, she’s the one who told us to do it.”

Annette drops her bag and grabs the boy by the shoulders. “The healer lady! Do you know her? Do you know where she is?”

“I haven’t seen her today, miss!” says the boy, pulling out of her grasp. “But I know she’s staying in a cottage outside of the village. I can take you there.”

The first thing Annette notices when she enters the cottage is the smell.

Cholera is not a pretty disease. It doesn’t allow its victims any measure of dignity in their final hours. It strikes swiftly and mercilessly, leaving people dead in a mess of their own vomit and feces.

Mercedes, who had always been so dignified, was lying in such a mess now. The one chamber pot in the room was full to overflowing, but it had done little to contain the full extent of what the disease had caused Mercedes to expel.

Annette’s tears begin to flow instantly. She runs to the bedside, not caring about the mess, and falls to her knees, clutching Mercedes’ arm.

“Mercy, oh Mercy,” says Annette, between sobs.

“Annie…?” Mercedes voice is small and weak, but it pierces Annette’s heart. Mercedes was still alive. At least for now.

Annette stands up instantly, reaching forward to cradle Mercedes’ head. “Yes, Mercy, its’ me. I’ve come to help you. Just tell me what to do. You’ve been studying how to cure this disease, right? Tell me how I can help you.”

“It’s too late, Annie,” says Mercedes. “Once the disease is at this stage its only a matter of hours.”

“You figured out that it was the well causing the sickness, right?” says Annette.

“Yes,” says Mercedes. “The number of people getting sick has gone way down since I shut off the well, but... it will still take some time before the infection goes away completely. There were inevitably going to be more victims. It’s just bad luck that I’m one of them.”

“But if you figured all that out, you must have figured out a treatment, too!” says Annette. “Please, you have to have figured something out.”

Mercedes shakes her head. “The well was the only thing I figured out. I’ve run out of time. I’m sorry, Annie.”

“Don’t apologize to me!” says Annette. “I’m sorry I let you leave! I’m sorry I didn’t come with you! I’m sorry I didn’t come find you sooner! I can’t believe no one was here to help you. You did so much to help these townspeople and they were just going to leave you here alone to die!”

“They didn’t know,” says Mercedes. “I wasn’t sick yesterday. Cholera kills quickly.”

Annette is aware that she isn’t making much sense. Her thoughts keep jumping back and forth to different topics, trying to make sense of the unthinkable. She falls down on the bed, wrapping her arms around Mercedes, hugging her desperately. “All you wanted to do was help people,” she says. “I curse the goddess for letting this happen to you.”

“Don’t curse the goddess,” says Mercedes, gently patting the back of Annette’s head. “When I’m by her side, I’ll thank the goddess ever day for sending you to me in my last hours. I didn’t want to die alone. Thank you, Annie. I love you.”

“I love you, too Mercy,” says Annette. “I love you so much.”

Mercedes is dead within the hour.

Epilogue

After Mercedes’ death, Annette dedicated her life to following in her footsteps as a healer. Building on Mercedes’ discoveries, Annette was able to work towards curtailing cholera outbreaks by quickly pinpointing and removing the source of disease, often an infected water or food source. She authored papers on the new and innovative germ theory of disease and pioneered a treatment for cholera that involved using magic to inject a saline solution directly into the blood of patients. She even used her family fortune to renovate an old church into Fodlan’s first dedicated hospital, which she dubbed the Mercy Memorial Hospital. Mercy Memorial is still in operation to this day.


End file.
